World-renowned Minnesota Orchestra music director Osmo Vanska has sent a letter to the orchestra board threatening to resign if the musician contract stalemate is not resolved soon.

In the letter, sent Tuesday, April 30, Vanska said several Minnesota Orchestra musicians have left during the dispute, and concertmaster Erin Keefe recently told Vanska she has been offered positions elsewhere. If she were to leave, Vanska said, "my own position as music director may become unsustainable."

The Minnesota Orchestra has a recording session scheduled for September and is scheduled to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall in November. In his letter, Vanska told the board it is vital for rehearsals to begin the week of May 27 to be ready for the coming season, the recording and Carnegie.

Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra are booked to play all seven Sibelius symphonies over the course of four concerts at Carnegie Hall in November and April.

"The Carnegie Hall project represents for me one of the most significant goals of my entire Minnesota Orchestra tenure," Vanska said in the letter. "I wish to do everything possible to ensure those concerts go ahead. But at this time I must make it clear, that in the case Carnegie Hall chooses to cancel the Minnesota Orchestra's concerts this November, i.e.

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, if they lose confidence in our ability to perform these concerts as a result of the extended lockout, then I will be forced to resign my position as music director."

In a letter to the board Wednesday, the musicians said the possibility of losing Vanska "would throw our orchestra into a tailspin never before seen in our industry. The artistic damage this loss would inflict upon our organization would be extreme. The level of chaos following his resignation would be tremendous. Our audience would be outraged beyond anything they've shown up to this point."

In a statement Wednesday night, Minnesota Orchestra President Michael Henson said: "We share our music director's desire to begin performing concerts as soon as possible. We want the orchestra to perform a summer season, open the renovated Orchestra Hall and visit Carnegie Hall in November, but we will need the musicians' participation to make this happen. We cannot negotiate on our own."

Henson added that the board began preparing musicians for the contracts talks three years ago and put an offer on the table more than a year ago to allow time for negotiations.

"It's now been more than a year, and the musicians' union still refuses to make a counter-proposal," Henson's statement said. "Instead, they forced us into a lockout decision and have thrown up one barrier after another. We have met every reasonable demand. -1/8St. Paul Chamber Orchestra-3/8 musicians were able to negotiate a contract settlement amidst a lockout, and we believe it is time that we do the same so that all the projects that our music director referenced can proceed."